Zen and the art of cross-dressing

Ron Dicker, SPECIAL TO THE EXAMINER

Published 4:00 am, Sunday, September 3, 1995

NEW YORK - Wesley Snipes wrestled with the meaning of life long before he put on a dress.

Snipes, co-star of the drag comedy "To Wong Foo, Thanks for Everything, Julie Newmar," opening Friday, mixes and matches astrology, mysticism and religion much the way his character, Noxeema, does with outfits.

Snipes rarely discusses his spiritual bent, but asking him about it is like tapping into a gusher. He's 33 now, a crucial age for a "double Leo" (July 31).

"This is a new cycle," he says with a skeptic-slaying intensity that echoes in the empty ballroom of a Park Avenue hotel. "This is the time where I have to lay the foundation for what my life will be. If I want it to be chaotic, 33 to 34 is the time to do it. If I want it to be structured, organized, prolific, profound, professional and inspirational, it's my choice."

Snipes cracks that soul-searching is not one of the great Hollywood pastimes. Thankfully, he adds, he was into it long before he entered the business, which can often be soul-scorching.

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He attends Egyptian tarot readings that involve both cards and stones ( "Don't ask me how it works. I don't really know" ). He sees an astrologer. About the only thing he doesn't do is dial up Dionne Warwick and her Psychic Friends Network.

Confronting a doubting reporter, Snipes defends his quest for self. The readings "are more about how my disposition is and what areas I should be concerned about in my behavior," he says. "I don't think a lot of people are interested in it from a practical point of view. They're interested in the mysticism of it. They're interested in knowing if they're gonna be successful and validating things they want to happen. That's not what I'm about."

Snipes also has dabbled in institutional religion. He was reared a Baptist but found no solace in fundamentalism. He then became a Muslim, which he credits for building his moral character. Now he subscribes to the general concept of spirituality.

He lives what he calls "the duality." One side of him is rough-edged and cold. The other is soft and compassionate.

One side of him travels in "the black social-political world," the other in "white upper bourgeois society."

"I walk the rope," he says.

Snipes appears decidedly uptown on a recent Sunday. He wears a tan linen suit with a black T-shirt. His head is clean-shaven, and his sunglasses never leave his face, even in the dull lighting of the ballroom.

He looks like a movie star.

Said John Leguizamo, who plays a lovelorn queen named Chi Chi Rodriguez: "Patrick (Swayze), Wesley and I sat around and did manly things like comparing box office. Wesley runs away with it."

Snipes, behind films like "Jungle Fever" and "White Men Can't Jump," is always on the short list when a major black role comes up. He suffered his first flop recently ( "Drop Zone" ) but, shifting into a Zen gear, insists he's over it.

"It was the first time I was ever confronted with marketing issues," Snipes says. "Then I realized, do I really have control over that? No. And is it a reflection of me as an artist? I don't think so."

Despite a muy-macho on-screen persona, Snipes asserts playing a gay transvestite in "Wong Foo" was low-risk. In fact, he had done drag before in a play that might be familiar to some San Franciscans: He was Sister Boom Boom in "Execution of Justice," about the assassination of Harvey Milk.

This time he's the feisty Noxeema, whose fashion taste runs somewhere between Superfly and the Supremes. Snipes gets to be the most masculine of the trio, keeping the testosterone in his gait as his muscles ripple under knit blouses. His daily push-ups and martial arts do wonders for his upper torso, but they're hell on haute couture.

"It was weird seeing Wesley in a gown practicing kung fu on the set," Swayze said.

The movie focuses on the threesome's adventure in a backward Midwestern town where they're stranded en route to a beauty contest in Hollywood. Conservative village yahoos learn love and tolerance; flamboyant outsiders confront their own demons.

For all his metaphysical efforts, Snipes has yet to conquer his real-life demons. He admits to a continuing restlessness. His off-again, on-again girlfriend of five years is a calming force, as is his best friend, "a man who naturally has God in him," he says.

But they are not enough. In fact, they might be too much.

"I need isolation, man" he says, rubbing his eyes under his shades. "There are too many things going on in my life. My energy is dispersed in so many ways. I need time to isolate so I can laser-beam my thoughts."

Snipes believes the answers to life can come from anywhere, even the drunk on the corner of his Brooklyn neighborhood.

And his advice?

"Keep it real, brother. Keep it real."

With that, Snipes' publicist walks over to break up the chat. Snipes graciously excuses himself and walks outside the lobby where a limousine is waiting and admirers are yelling sweet nothings as he ducks into the back.

Talk about duality.&lt;

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